1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a combination safety cage for an all terrain vehicle (ATV) to contain and keep the driver totally within the safety cage in the event the ATV overturns or rolls over and thereby to prevent the driver from being thrown out of the ATV, and to prevent the driver, or any part of his body, from being injured.
2. Background
Some 9 million ATV's have been sold in the United States. Young people, especially, who operate ATV's have sustained serious bodily injuries, in part, because of their lack of driving skill, inexperience and inability to properly operate and control the ATV's. Another part of the reason is the fact that ATV's have some operational instability. When an ATV overturns or rolls over, the driver is thrown or snatched out of his ATV to the ground, pinned or crushed beneath the vehicle. When an ATV is overturning laterally to the left or right, the driver, by instinct, will put his respective left or right foot on the ground in an attempt to "right" the ATV. By doing so, the driver's left or right foot will be in direct line with the corresponding left or right rear wheel of the ATV and, hence, will be caught beneath such corresponding left or right rear wheel causing the driver to be snatched from the vehicle and crushed beneath the vehicle, resulting in the driver's death or his sustaining serious bodily injuries.
The problems in the art to which this invention apertains are the need to render it physically impossible for the driver to put his foot on the ground while operating the ATV, the need to prevent the driver from being thrown out of the ATV in the event of a turnover or roll over, the need to totally contain and keep the driver in the ATV regardless of turnover or roll over, the need to totally protect the driver whether his ATV overturns laterally to the left or right, whether the ATV rolls over or turns over in whatever direction, and the need to improve the operational stability of the ATV.